


William

by LadyFrandrews



Series: Fathom [6]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Will's POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-10
Updated: 2019-10-10
Packaged: 2020-11-28 16:49:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20969828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyFrandrews/pseuds/LadyFrandrews
Summary: Next up in the Fathom series...Will's POV.





	William

He’s always hated being the bleeding heart that he is.

His friends don’t understand how or  _ why _ he talks to the older boy. 

He can’t tell them the  _ truth _ . 

Except he wasn’t there, at his own house,  _ that _ night. 

He didn’t see the way the older boy treated Lucas or nearly beat Steve to death had it not been for Max. Or the drugs that were left behind in a mad rush to get the Mindflayer  _ out _ of his own body. 

El gets it. She and he have had a few conversations since that night about the older boy. 

She thinks he’s pretty. He agrees. 

She also said he has a Papa too. Bad Man. 

There’s something about  _ his _ eyes that snags his attention first, and then once you get  _ him _ talking, there’s intelligence there that speaks to him.

He draws pictures and creates things for his friends, but  _ he _ ,  _ he _ writes. 

He knows it’s nothing more than a crush on the older boy’s artist’s mind. Well, okay, he’s nice to look at, and he does when he can, but he also knows not to advertise that about himself. 

Jonathan all but told him he can be who he is and it won’t change anything, but he needs to be careful in a place like Hawkins. Jonathan said that once he’s comfortable in New York, he’ll scope out places to take him when he comes to visit. 

He enjoyed dancing with Jenny Leighton at the SnowBall last year, especially since she asked him about his art. What he liked to draw, did he have a preference for mediums and paper, or was he still just starting out. 

It was nice to talk about something other than everyone wanting to know what it actually felt like being Zombie Boy. 

_ He _ never asked him about it. In fact, Billy Hargrove never even brought it up in conversation. The one time he did it himself, the older boy had told him that it shouldn't matter what other people think about him.  _ Ever _ .

Steve Harrington, he was a whole different story. One of the wealthiest families in Hawkins. Spoiled asshole if the stories are to be believed. 

It took Steve changing to make him realize that having more money or things doesn’t make you happier. If anything, from what Jonathan had told him before the Upside Down came into their lives, Steve was alone. A lot. 

Fake friends. Fake relationships. The rumors spread that Harrington was easy when intoxicated and with his hair the length it was it was pretty easy for some guys to imagine him as a girl if he went down on them. Will doesn't think he could ever let himself be used like that. No matter how lonely he felt.

Jonathan told him about the new camera. Where it came from.  _ Why _ . 

Dustin had told him that yeah, Steve’s an asshole of giant proportions, but he has a big heart. 

_Assholes_ don’t clean off slurs their friends spray paint on movie theater marquees. 

_Assholes_ don’t take a beating trying to protect snotty teenagers from a _bigger_ asshole.

_Assholes_ don’t follow those same snotty kids into tunnels where they could all possibly _die_.

So maybe Steve Harrington wasn’t _that_ big of an asshole.

Will had guessed that Billy was like himself, or perhaps a complete queer. Strictly into boys. Will wasn’t sure yet if he liked both or one over the other. He just knew that his interests didn’t line up like his friends currently were. 

He began watching how Steve and Billy interacted whenever they saw each other. 

He noticed that if Max was allowed to go, she was typically there first and Billy always hung around until Steve showed up with Lucas and Dustin, sometimes Mike. 

He’d watch through the darkened windows of Palace Arcade how they would talk to each other. Leaning against their own cars, attention only on each other. He liked their soft smiles.

He noticed when Max started watching them too. She always looked calculating, like _she knew_ something none of them did. Knew something that not even Billy was aware of. 

He noticed that when they would gather at his house, she always called and told him that Steve was coming and then he almost always showed up not too long after. Talking to each other outside.

Dustin radioed him on their walkies one night. Said they’d been seen together by his mom at the diner on the outskirts of town. 

Will wonders if Dustin would understand. He should. He’s said one of his uncles is gay. 

But he doesn’t say anything. 

He just watches.

He watches at their cook-out how Steve can’t take his eyes off of Billy, following him around wherever he goes. 

He listens as Dustin retells him, telling Lucas and Mike for the first time, about his Mom’s observation of the two older boys. 

Lucas rolls his eyes but Mike stares at him before glancing over at Billy, who’s talking to Jim, then back at Will.  _ It doesn’t matter _ is what comes out of Mike’s mouth. Somehow Will thinks Mike’s not talking about Steve and Billy. 

Will excuses himself and searches out El. He finds her with Max, heads close together, whispering and smiling to each other as they follow Billy and Steve with their eyes. 

They quiet as he approaches but he smiles softly and tells them that he knows and he has a plan.

El’s always wanted a barbarian for a campaign run. 


End file.
